But maybe it's up in the hills under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever you find, is always only part of the missing, and writing is the way the poet finds out what it is he found.
-- Paul Engle, US poet, author, in Life 28 May 1956.Leaves are on my mind. It would be difficult not to have them on my mind when they're everywhere so spectacular and so inviting. The maples, birches, oaks and all the lesser plants such as the roses and sumacs. Everywhere I look in the autumn, I see nature's clock.
Leaf & Bench
(click on image for a larger, clearer view)Whether in bunches, clusters or individually, such as this single water-dropped leaf on a park bench in the Port Credit harbour, autumn leaves are the final flowering of the spring and summer, and the harbinger of winter. Their job done, they drop to the ground, or are blown there by October and November winds, where they lie to decompose, providing frost cover and nourishment to all the dormant plants and insects beneath their surface.
Leaves in our Backyard
(click on image for a larger, clearer view)In the city, however, we remove all our healthy, beneficial autumn leaves. Leaves like these in our backyard will be raked to the ditch where a City of Mississauga leaf truck vacuums them up and adds them to the great municipal compost heap. Nothing must disturb the beauty of our manicured lawns.
Rose and Burning Bush Leaves
(click on image for a larger, clearer view)It's okay though. There are plenty of places where the leaves can dance their autumnal rites undisturbed. The beauty is there for anyone who cares to cast a gaze. And perhaps that's what photography is all about -- casting a gaze and translating what looks back at us onto a light-capturing medium.
Red Leaves with a Twist
(click on image for a larger view)There is a ripe beauty in these fallen paradoxes that invites the spirit in. Ah, what a time to be alive.
(1-Nov-2003, Revised 16-June-2004)
www.NorthernJourney.com -- gene@wilburn.ca